It’s the time of year when seasonal carols sing of bells ringing. But for many in the INDYCAR community, the only bells they’re hearing are the sounding of alarms.

The season-ending event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway has been removed from the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule.

It’s the return of CART!

We’re witnessing the death of open-wheel oval racing as we know it!

That last point may be true — but if it is, it will only be because oval racing purists ran out of patience for letting INDYCAR properly resolve its issues.

We don’t yet know the exact reason for LVMS’s exclusion from next season’s calendar, but it’s fair to make some assumptions.

The initial reaction is to assume that it’s a PR move related directly to Dan Wheldon’s death. Further consideration renders this conclusion highly unlikely. If the occurrence of a fatality alone were enough to drop a track from the schedule, open-wheel cars would have had off-years at Homestead, Fontana, Laguna Seca, and even Indianapolis in seasons not all that long past, and that has never happened.

What we do know is that the investigation into the cause of Wheldon’s death is approaching completion, and some combination of these factors will almost certainly be determined to be at fault: pack racing; corner banking inappropriate for the speeds achieved by INDYCARs; and/or, the nature of the catch fencing design at LVMS.

The first point is already being addressed in the development of the DW12. Randy Bernard and Will Phillips have publicly stated as much.

But the second and third points aren’t quite so simple. If it’s determined that high-banked ovals simply aren’t appropriate for INDYCARs — which, to be fair, is something we knew to a degree already — then there’s nothing to be done except to avoid those tracks. Yes, it means that the slate of ovals available for INDYCAR racing will be narrowed — possibly significantly, depending on what degree of banking is deemed acceptable — but there will still be options, and INDYCAR will simply need to concentrate its oval-racing efforts on those.

And then there’s the third scenario. If the investigation deems that the banking at LVMS wasn’t a significant enough factor in the October 16th incident to warrant banning INDYCARs but that the design of the catch fencing is, then that opens an entirely new and very complicated can of worms.

It could be that SMI is interested in doing what’s necessary to keep INDYCAR racing at its tracks, or the investigation could reveal that the current catch fencing design is inappropriate for allforms of motor racing and that a complete refit is heavily in SMI’s best interests. In that case, these tracks may be ready for INDYCAR to return in 2013 and we’ll be wondering what all the fuss was about.

However, it is also possible that the investigation will find that the current catch fencing design is unsafe for open-wheel cars but is acceptable for other forms of racing. In that event, SMI will be examining the potential return on the investment of installing entirely new catch fencing for the sole purpose of allowing INDYCAR to race at its tracks, and INDYCAR will have a whole lot of cajoling to do. In this scenario, the end result of losing a slew of ovals and a solid business partner seems nearly inevitable.

Of course, there’s also the small problem that INDYCAR needs to be commercially viable enough that it either looks attractive to its available tracks such that they want to pursue INDYCAR events or that it can learn to hold its own well enough to rent facilities, do the necessary promotion, and draw a profit independently.

Either way, the future holds a lot of waiting and a lot of hard work.

The hard work is going to come from INDYCAR’s side. Fences are likely already being mended with ISC to expand INDYCAR’s potential slate of oval tracks given that at least some SMI tracks may need to be abandoned. On top of that, INDYCAR is going to need to do a massive rethink of how it approaches oval racing to the point that it may need to revolutionize motor racing promotion in America as we know it. In fact, INDYCAR’s very survival in anything approaching its current state likely depends on its ability to do so. (Let’s all breathe a sigh of relief that Randy Bernard is the man in charge at the moment. INDYCAR is extremely fortunate that the ingenuity and acumen necessary to successfully pull this off are already present within its organization.)

The waiting part, on the other hand, needs to come from the outside — the teams, the media, and the fans. These changes can happen, but they won’t happen overnight. Perhaps the greatest risk INDYCAR faces right now is that people who see things they view as undesirable in the short-term (i.e., a shorter schedule with few ovals) will give up on the Series before the situation can be rectified.

INDYCAR is well-aware of its roots and what its existing supporters want to see. If the people who have been supporting INDYCAR for years take one look at the 2012 schedule and say “there aren’t enough ovals, I’m out” before the pendulum can swing the other way, the outcome for INDYCAR will be disastrous.

But if this process can be given the time it needs to unfold naturally, and if people can view this time of transition for what it is — a short-term loss for a long-term gain — then INDYCAR can benefit greatly. There were glimpses this past season into the potential that INDYCAR racing holds when things are done right: crowds began to return to Indianapolis, and many thousands of new fans flocked to the streets of Baltimore. If INDYCAR can properly resolve its issues and people can be kept from losing interest, not only will a solid foundation have been built for INDYCAR’s future, but it will have happened with an eye to resolving the safety issues that brought this position about in the first place and make motor racing safer for participants and observers alike.

INDYCAR needs to take a look at its identity. Right now it’s confused, like it’s trying to be some cousin of both F1 and NASCAR, but, honestly, that means it is failing at both. Even before Dan died, most everyone though racing at Vegas was going to be….messy. The track simply wasn’t built with INDYCAR’s Dallaras in mind. Quite a few of the oval tracks are not, as you’ve stated. However, in this NASCAR-centric country (short attention spans, ect), street and road course races have a hard time catching on with the casual fan (which, let’s face it, is who INDYCAR is trying to attract. They already KNOW us die-hards aren’t going anywhere), as the strategy and talent involved in winning those races isn’t easy to understand if you’re used to the “Drive fast turn left” crowd. I’m not saying there’s an easy fix, but I DO think taking LVMS and similar tracks off the schedule is a step in the right direction. And, hey, we will have the ability to race at Circuit of the Americas in 2013….and why don’t they try Seabring out?

The arrogance of the Euro-Centric (biased parade lovers) crowd never cease to amaze me. Indy car racing is and has always meant oval racing. The further they move from that, the more likely that Cart III will fail yet again.

Now this is getting messy. I can say with all honestly that Dan’s death hurt me to the depths of my soul. I don’t know the banking degree of every oval on the schedule, but I’ll check into that for my own curiosity. I would bet my life that if you ramped up a car at the same speed of that day & lap, you couldn’t hit a post at the same helmet location if you tried it a thousand times. Having said that, the fencing attached to the inside of the posts is poor rigging & is unsafe for any form of racing. If you add up all the ingredients that Steph mentioned it was a recipe for something bad happening. I’m tellin’ ya Indycar will not live without ovals. Indy racing was born on them. SMI will not correct it’s fencing for Indycar alone, so get real. IICS has been treated like the proverbial red headed step child for over a decade & to be honest I think that’s the way they want it. I just hope Indycar isn’t making a knee jerk reaction because we lost ANOTHER fine racer & all around good man. I also hope they picked the right car builder.

Sigh… if there are short-term losses, where will the long-term gains come from? There is absolutely nothing to suggest that ISC is the least bit interested in mending fences, and a whole lot to suggest that ISC would love to exploit this to kill off Indycar oval racing altogether. I don’t expect to see Fontana back on the schedule in 2013; in fact, I think it is highly probable that the 2012 race will wind up being cancelled.

If Vegas is deemed unsuitable because of its banking, then the only oval tracks in the SMI portfolio that meet the criteria are New Hampshire and Kentucky, both of which have been dropped. SMI isn’t going to build any new tracks any time soon, and it isn’t going to lower the banking of any of its existing tracks when such a move would go over badly with NASCAR.

Indycar just purged the last holdouts of the Tony George era from the organization. Let’s face it, they are writing off the oval racing audience. It’s over.

The track didn’t kill Dan Wheldon. Bad driving in bad cars killed Dan Wheldon. IndyCars’ reluctance to even test these tracks with the new car to see if the fixes work is what is inexplicable to me.

To turn your back on tracks that actually want your series running there is dumbfounding and proof to me that this series is hellbent on becoming a watered-down street series catering to fans who couldn’t name three drivers if you put a gun to their collective heads.

I now have to choose between a second-rate oval series (nascar) and a second-rate road/street series (indycar). I guess I’ll watch Formula 1.

As I posted to another blog, the Vegas situation was a twofold problem in and of itself. First, in spite of all the promotional efforts, the race did not draw FLIES!. When you consider that for each ticket purchased during 2011, you could get a FREE ticket to the Vegas race, the place should have been packed. It wasn’t, and the effort put forth by Randy to make it happen has left a bad taste in the mouths of other oval track owners, operators, and promoters.

The second part has to do with the equipment, both the cars and the facility. If true fans will think back, it was only last year that IndyCar loosened some handling restrictions on the “old” Dallara. Why? Because even oval tracks were becoming parades where the only passing was taking place in the pits. If you recall, after the Kentucky race last year, a lot of us were saying, “OK, NOW we have racing.”

What we had, in fact, was more pack racing, the very thing that many are now decrying as the cause of the Vegas accident. Why? Because we now had Dallaras running side-by-side, flat out all the way around. Prior to Kentucky in 2010, the cars didn’t “like” running side by side because of the turbulence. In fact, earlier this season at Texas, many were wondering why we didn’t have the side-by-side racing that we expected there.

Now, because several drivers couldn’t pace themselves on the thirteenth lap of a 300 mile race, we don’t want pack racing anymore? Well, which IS it?

Based on what we’ve all been seeing about the new car, without some pretty radical “fixes,” we certainly won’t be seeing that anymore–People will be too scared of the car’s handling to try it. (I defer to Marshall Pruett on all the “techie” stuff like weight distribution, horsepower, turbo boost, and engine leases. ) But, when every car can run flat out all the time, what you’re going to have will either be pack racing or single file parades, depending on how the cars respond to each other on the track.

As to the facilities, some now apparently want new catch fencing on the high speed ovals to avoid the type of contact that apparently cost Dan Wheldon his life. Fine. But who’s going to PAY for that when the best you can do is put 20,000 fans in the place, even with ticket giveaways? If I’m a track owner, my answer is simple: “It ain’t gonna happen.”

Obviously, the more expeditious route is to do whatever you can to keep the cars from going airborne. Whether the new car, with it’s “bumpers” has accomplished that, we won’t know until two of them come in contact. File that under “To Be Continued…”

From a purely emotional standpoint, I can understand the series not wanting to go back to Vegas next year. Death, however, has never stopped anyone from going to Indy, or (in NASCAR’s case) Daytona, even after the noteworthy deaths at either venue.

Honestly, I am much more an oval fan than a road/street fan, pretty understandable when I grew up near Indy and spent quite a few of my younger days at 16th and Georgetown. I can also tell you this: I am also watching a lot more NASCAR now than I used to. Why? Maybe because it’s more, “Boys, have at it,” than you can possibly have in our series where “Rubbin’ is CRASHIN’!”, But maybe it’s because 32 or so times a year, I can watch racing on ovals and most of the time, it’s pretty close.

IndyCar seems to be trending AWAY from that, which is truly strange since attempts to turn open wheel racing into a majority of street/road races in this country have met with a resounding THUD. Twice.

The true essence of modern day IndyCar racing is the versatility: Our drivers race on road courses, street courses, small ovals, medium high-speed ovals, and superspeedways, virtually anything you can run that doesn’t go a quarter of a mile in a straight line, or run on dirt or mud.

The more that is done to shift the balance of that, the more we lessen that versatility.

[...] of course, there’s the matter of the extremely low number of oval races. As previously discussed on More Front Wing, this is clearly disappointing but is completely understandable and should be temporary once [...]

It’s not just that oval are dead. Drivers are also died in road and street crash. But it’s time for Indy car to reconstruct their future for oval track racing. Indy car should change their vision and fix the disputes presented after death of Wheldon.

Indycar needs to bring oval racing back very soon or rhe only race people will watch will be the Indy 500 Dan Wheldon was my favorite and i will miss him alot but i wanna see a 30 race schedule 15 road courses and ovals i wanna see New Hampshie Milwakee Phoenix Fontana Miami Chicago Kansas Michigan Kentucky Atlanta Charlotte Dover and Las Vegas on the schedule i will still watch Indycar i didnt leave Indycar Indycar left all of us ):

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